skrapoy
Member
My temps aren’t low enough to affect its growth I’ve done research and it’s actually incorrect the temps are correct for ammount of space he has and the enclosure
I believe I have a rare sulcata tortoise someone help?
- Thread starter skrapoy
- Start date
My temps aren’t low enough to affect its growth I’ve done research and it’s actually incorrect the temps are correct for ammount of space he has and the enclosure
Chubbs the tegu
Well-Known Member
Do you have an open top enclosure? And yes humidity 24/7
skrapoy
Member
And no she’s one of the best in the state
skrapoy
Member
It’s breathable so it dosent get to wet because he can be hurt if he stays to wet
Chubbs the tegu
Well-Known Member
Not all the info you find on the net is correct . Listen to Tom if you want the best for your tort. He has many years of hands on experience and he knows what hes talking about
skrapoy
Member
Well I actually talked to a tortoise expert recently about it is what I was saying
skrapoy
Member
And yes I know I’ve been on this app sense 2018 I’m familiar with his intelligence
Chubbs the tegu
Well-Known Member
Ok then you should that humidity is not gonna make him sick if your temps are up
skrapoy
Member
Which also brings me back to I’ve had the tortoise way before the app and he still hasn’t grown and still isn’t sick so wtf I’m so confused
Chubbs the tegu
Well-Known Member
Im by no means an expert or claim to be but i trust all the info ive learned on here
skrapoy
Member
No I’m saying like everything is correct I’ve followed what people have told me to do for over a year and still no growth and no sickness i wasn’t replying to your Internet comment
skrapoy
Member
And most of the info I get is from here because some vets work for money not for the animal
Okay so your temps are never lower then 80 day and night?
The basking temp is 95-100?
The humidity is never lower then 80%?
All the above is what you would learn on this forum and needs to be as stated above.
It isn't true what your vet says about a tortoise not growing is a healthy tortoise and that it's just a rare thing! Just plain out not true!
So, what are you feeding?
How much are you feeding?
What are you feeding?
Are you feeding daily?
Do you soak him in warm water daily?
Are you using a UVB bulb?
We need answers to the questions you have been asked in order for us to help you. You have gotten some bad incorrect info and without the answers to the questions we can only assume your doing more wrong then right.
Everytime someone tells us they are doing things right without giving details its eventually discovered they actually are not doing everything right which is important for the well being of the tortoise.
Usually when we see a tortoise that barely grows it's because they had a very bad/poor start from the breeder and eventually they keep getting worse and die.
Giving us the answers to all the questions and following what the requirements on this forum are for heat, humidity, diet, etc, will give your tortoise the best possible chance of surviving.
The basking temp is 95-100?
The humidity is never lower then 80%?
All the above is what you would learn on this forum and needs to be as stated above.
It isn't true what your vet says about a tortoise not growing is a healthy tortoise and that it's just a rare thing! Just plain out not true!
So, what are you feeding?
How much are you feeding?
What are you feeding?
Are you feeding daily?
Do you soak him in warm water daily?
Are you using a UVB bulb?
We need answers to the questions you have been asked in order for us to help you. You have gotten some bad incorrect info and without the answers to the questions we can only assume your doing more wrong then right.
Everytime someone tells us they are doing things right without giving details its eventually discovered they actually are not doing everything right which is important for the well being of the tortoise.
Usually when we see a tortoise that barely grows it's because they had a very bad/poor start from the breeder and eventually they keep getting worse and die.
Giving us the answers to all the questions and following what the requirements on this forum are for heat, humidity, diet, etc, will give your tortoise the best possible chance of surviving.
I see where you answered before. Your text was hidden at the end of my post that you quoted. I had to click "click to expand" for your typing to show.
I'll address your answer here, by number:
- 74 is too cool. 70 at night is much too cool. In reading your other posts, I see that you are making a common and understandable mistake. You are "researching" and reading info from multiple sources and then using the info that suits you from wherever you've found it. Here is the main problem with this: Most of the care info for this species is wrong. Its based on 30 year old incorrect assumptions of how they live in the wild. The info was wrong then and its still wrong. My info is based on 29 years of keeping this species AND doing all sorts of growth and rearing experiments designed to compare one method to another. I know what works and what doesn't because of years of my own research. I also watch other people's results from a wide variety of keeping styles and compare and contrast that to what I see in my own experiments. I don't know how to convince people that the info they've found in 20 other places is all the same, and wrong, but my info is the info they should follow. All I can do is try to explain it and show my own results.
- This tells me nothing. What wattage ceramic? How many? Thermostat? What kind of lights? Basking bulbs, LEDs, florescent UV tubes, cfl bulbs?
- How many? Mounting height? Temperature under them?
- 100 gallons os a good size for starting a baby.
- Soaking once a day is enough, especially if they are correctly housed and kept warm and humid.
- Grocery store greens are not good tortoise food. Read this for more explanation and ideas on that: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/
- A "certified vet"? All vets are certified. Licensed too. Most vets have no clue about tortoises and tortoise care. Believe me on this one. I'm friends with many vets, and my wife was a vet tech for 13 years, and then a vet consultant for 15 years. My career has me in contact with exotic vets almost daily. There is no semester on tortoise care in vet school. Even if there was, it would be one person's opinion and based on what? Stuff they read from books and the internet? All that stuff is wrong. The only way for any person to become knowledgable about tortoises is to keep them, raise them, breed them, and experiment with different parameters for years. Very few vets meet this criteria. We've had a couple here, and man, they were fantastic. They had all the vet knowledge on top of all the real life tortoise knowledge. Most vets read a handbook or vet website in the back, and their care and recommendations are based on what they read there. "Vitamin injections" being a common mistake and indicator of this.
- There is no time limit on the damage caused by Breeder Failure Syndrome. Some percentage will survive and eventually grow up. My Daisy is an example of this. Some of them will survive for years but hardly grow at all. Like yours. Some will seem totally fine and normal, but not grow past 50 grams, and then doe weeks or months later. In your case, we have several issues that could be contributing to the problem. You've got the wrong temps, wrong diet, and it sounds like you have an open top will will make things too dry. Dryness and cool temps slow sulcatas way down in growth. They are very adaptable about diet, so I doubt that is a big contributing factor in the lack of growth, but it can cause other problems like rock eating.
- As temps in the enclosure cool at night (Shouldn't cool below 80), humidity naturally rises on its own. You shouldn't have to do anything special to keep humidity up day or night. Your enclosure should do that on its own if its set up correctly.
Yes they are too low, and whoever wrote whatever you read is wrong. Years of experimentation prove this. Looking at the air and ground temps from where they come from is further evidence. And what does the amount of space have to do with what temps they need? Enclosure size has something to do with what temperatures they need?
Just because someone does something and the animal survives, doesn't mean its the "right" or "best" way to do things. I've seen sulcatas survive all sorts of incorrect care. Then those people go on the internet and tell people their way is the right way because their tortoise is still alive. Surviving is not necessarily thriving. I know what's right because for decades I followed the wrong advice and did it all wrong. Time, trial and error, and a lot of side-by-side experimentation have demonstrated what works best. I want optimal care, not survivable care.
This forum is full of tortoise "experts". As I said before, the vast majority of care info for this species circulating around out in the world is wrong. Most of the people that have been doing it this way for decades still don't know it is wrong. I didn't know it was wrong when I was doing it, but my results were bad time after time, so I figured it out for myself over the course of three decades. I talked to "experts, breeders, vets, book authors and everyone I could find to solve these mysteries. None of their advice helped. Every attempt using their advice failed. It took many years, info and help from many sources, and a lot of guesswork to finally put it all together and figure out what works best and why. We now know and we try to share this new and better info here. Some people take it and some people don't.
None of my baby tortoise of any species fail to grow and thrive. I have a 100% survival rate on hatchlings. There must be something to it.
Where did you get the tortoise? Do you know how it was started?
My best guess based on what I know and what you've told us is that you got a baby that was started incorrectly. Too dry, maybe outside all day, maybe too cool... Just guessing here, but it would make sense as I've seen it before.
So I'm pitching a new sitcom to the Netflix:
Tom vs The Millennial
I think it will be a huge hit
Tom vs The Millennial
I think it will be a huge hit
I [emoji813] the concept of "Skrapoy and his rare ungrowing Sulcata"... reminds me of "Kara Thrace and her special destiny" from battlestar.
Jamie
